Nowhere To Call Home: A Tibetan In Beijing

2014 | 76 minutes

Nowhere To Call Home tells the powerful story of Zanta, a Tibetan woman who moved to Beijing against the wishes of her in-laws so that her young son could get an education. Widowed at 28, Tibetan farmer Zanta defies her tyrannical father-in-law and after her husband’s death refuses to marry the family’s only surviving son. When Zanta’s in-laws won’t let her seven-year-old go to school, she flees her village and heads to Beijing where she becomes a street vendor. Destitute and embattled by discrimination, Zanta inveigles a foreign customer into helping pay her boy’s school fees. On a New Year’s trip back to her village, Zanta’s in-laws take her son hostage, drawing the unwitting American into the violent family feud. The two women forge a partnership to try to out-maneuver the in-laws, who according to tradition get the final say on their grandson.

In 2014 Nowhere To Call Home premiered in the U.S. at the Museum of Modern Art, and in China as the inaugural film at the opening of the new Center for Documentary Studies in Beijing. It has been invited to screen for Xinhua News Agency editors, and at a half dozen educational institutions, including Peking University, Renmin University, Minzu University, and PKU high school. The film has been garnering an extraordinary track record of acclaim from both Tibetans and Han Chinese in China, with a leading anthropologist describing the film as “very important for inspiring our imagination on modern China’s transformation.” A New York Times article, “Inspiring Dialogue, Not Dissent, in China,” stated “The film breaks down the sometimes romantic Shangri-La view that Westerners have of Tibet… and offers a shocking portrait of the outright racism… Tibetans face in Chinese parts of the country.”

Following the film the Director, Jocelyn Ford, will be available via the internet to answer questions from the audience. Jocelyn ford is an award-winning public radio journalist and filmmaker who has reported from Asia for three decades. Her audio work can be heard on Marketplace (Tokyo and Beijing bureau chief 1994-2006), Radio Lab, The World and other public radio programs.

$6.00 for Members of the Canada China Friendship Society of Ottawa. $6.00 for the Members of the Mayfair. $10.00 for General Public. CCFSO memberships available at the door.